It is common for establishments, such as retail establishments, and particularly restaurants, to facilitate drive-up customers with drive-up lanes and windows to service the customer. A customer will typically drive up to a menu/order board and communicate the customer's wishes from the vehicle to staff, including an order taker, inside the retail establishment. The customer, still in the vehicle, will then proceed to one or more windows in order to pay for the purchase, if required, and pick up the merchandise.
An intercom system can facilitate communication within and around the establishment, particularly between the occupant of the vehicle, the customer, and the staff inside the establishment. In a “quick service” restaurant situation, a post mounted speaker and microphone, located near a menu board, is hard wired to an intercom base station located inside the restaurant. The base station can wirelessly communicate with a portable device worn by an order taker. The portable device is typically a transceiver worn as a belt pack and an accompanied wired headset. Alternatively, in some instances, the portable device is self-contained on a wearable headset eliminating the need for a belt pack. The order taker typically listens continually to the post mounted microphone and presses a button in order to speak to the vehicle occupant as needed.
In many systems and methods of ordering items from an establishment from a drive-up or drive-thru facility, the order is orally communicated directly from the post-mounted speaker and microphone to an order taking facility, typically a drive-thru order specialist wearing a headset, in the establishment. The order specialist, or others, then collect the ordered item or items and handle the transaction with the customer at a drive-up window, taking money for the ordered item, making change and handing the order to the customer.
The drive-through ordering system is vitally important for a quick service restaurant. In some quick service restaurants, the drive-through is sixty percent (60%) or more of the revenue of the establishment. Thus, there is a great need for a reliable intercom system for use, for example, in obtaining orders from the drive-through facility. If the intercom system develops a fault, becomes mal-adjusted or otherwise malfunctions, the establishment may be unable to process orders from the drive-through facility not only preventing the establishment from booking the revenue which otherwise would have been obtained but also potentially alienating customers.
While systems and methods have been developed in which the order taking process is moved off-site from the establishment, for example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2003/0225622, Doan, entitled “Method and System For Entering Orders of Customers,” such systems may not prevent a problem locally associated with the intercom system of the establishment from disrupting communication.
Furthermore, many intercom systems utilize wireless techniques to facilitate communication among staff of the establishment. Such wireless intercom systems can have parameters, such as volume or gain, which affect the ability of the intercom system to function well and reliably. Such intercom systems can, over time, either through changing conditions, personnel, inappropriate adjustment, for example, become unreliable and/or inoperable.
Adding to the difficulty in establishing and maintaining a reliable and effective intercom system, is that establishment utilizing such intercom systems have become ubiquitous in many geographic areas, including communities in which highly-skilled personnel trained in the maintenance and repair of such intercoms are non-existent. Such personnel can often be located a considerable distance away from the site of the establishment, often a number of hours apart. Any failure or other inoperability of the intercom system in such a geographic location could result in a significant downtime for the intercom system and for the establishment to obtain a significant portion of their revenue until the such time as a maintenance and/or repair person can travel to the establishment. Even if the establishment is not distant from the location of service personnel, sending service personnel on a service call results in a significant expense, both in terms of money but also in the time expended to perform any required repair.